Frank g



(No Model.) 7

P. G. JOHNSON.

RAIL HOLDING SPLICE. No. 472,168. Patented Apr. 5, 1892.

IN VE/V TOR UNiT STATES ATENT FFICE.

FRANK G. JOHNSON, OF NEYV YORK, N. Y.

RAIL-HOLDING SPLICE.

$PEGIFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 472,168, dated April 5, 1892.

Application filed July 23, 1891. Serial No. 400,408. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK G. JOHNSON, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Longitudinal Rail-Holding Splices, of which the following is a specification.

I-Ieretofore it has been the custom to provide notches in the'base of rail-splices, known as fish-plates, and to drive spikes within these notches into the sleepers to prevent the rails from longitudinal movement; but it is shown by extensive practice that this does not accomplish the desired result for the reason that the spikes do not engage the ties with the rail-splices with sufiicient security, as the spikes are torn from the wooden sleepers by the longitudinal strain of the rails.

The object of my invention is to provide a splice-plate constructed in such a manner as to engage two or more ties, irrespective of spikes, in such a way that they will never lose their hold on the ties by the action of the rolling-stock or by longitudinal strain of the rail and without injury to the cross-ties, and yet prevent the longitudinal movement of the rails known as creeping of rails, and at the same time provide a stiffer splice for lateral and vertical support of the ends of the rails to more securely hold them in line with each other.

The nature of my invention consists in shaping the two opposite corresponding parts of the splice-plates in such a form that they (the splice-plates) will engage two or three (as may be preferable) cross-ties of the road in such a manner that the rails cannot longitudinally move without carrying the engaged ties with them.

Figure 1 is a plan view showing parts of three ties, the ends of two rails, and a pair of the splices as bolted to the rails and engaged to the three ties; Fig. 2, a longitudinal elevation on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, showing ends of three ties and one of a pair of splice-plates attached to the rails and the manner of engaging the ties by the splices Without the use of spikes or bolts; Fig. 3, a transverse elevation on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, showing a side view of a tie and an end view of a rail and a pair of splices as applied and a face view of their engaging contact with the tie; and Fig.

4:, a detail view of a portion of a splice-plate,

. Similarlettersreferto similarpartsthroughout the several views.

A A represent end portions of rails abutting each other and held in line by a pair of bolted-on splices; B B, Figf3, a pair of the splices; O O, cross-ties; c c, the horizontal portionsof the splices, which rest on the base of the rail; D D, the vertical portions of the splices, which extend downward below the base of the rail, except those portions of the same that are cut and bent away the extent of the width of the ties to furnish bifurcations to receive the same and allow them (the ties) to reach up to and rest against the base of the rail.

b b are bolts and nuts for clamping the two halves of the splice-plate to the rail.

E E are the downward-projecting lips or portions of the splice-plate which are removed to furnish bifurcations for the ties; but this portion E E of the downward projection is not wholly removed from the splice-plate; but these sections to be removed are first cut or divided in their longitudinal center, as shown by 6, Fig. 4, and severed at the top from the base of the splice, as shown by e c, Fig. 4, and then the two halves are bent outward on the lines 9 g, Fig. 4, to right angles with the longitudinal line of the splice, (best shown in Fig. 1,) thus forming what Iwill term wings. By means of these wings E E, I obtain broad faced contact between the vertical sides of the ties and the splice-plates, which prevents the splice from cutting into the ties.

Having sufficiently described my invention to give a clear understanding of its construction and the functions of its several parts, I will now briefly explain its operation.

It will be seen that when the two opposite halves of the spliceplates B B are firmly bolted to the rails and their downward-projecting lips D D, having the wings E E, engage the two or three ties it will be impossible for the rails to take any longitudinal movement without breaking the clampingbolts Z) b or carrying the ties O C with them, which are straddled and engaged by the spliceplates. It will be seen that both splice-plates that is, the two corresponding halves opposite rail-the character of their union being of the 1 tongue-and-groove order, one of which rails breaks joint with the other, in connection with which no fish-plate or splice-plate whatever is employed; but in this English patent I am aware there is used a peculiar device which is bolted to the rail and protrudes into the tie, but not at all in the form or manner of a spliceplate, or at all in the form or manner of my device herein set forth. Vhile this device in said English patent may prevent the longitudinal displacement of the described double rail, it does not act as a splice-plate, as the inventor particularly disclaims the use of such plates altogether as one of the merits of his invention.

I am also aware of the Patent No. 437,302, granted to Frank R. Johnson September 30, 1890, and now assigned to me, in which is described and claimed, in fish-plates, the downward-extending bifurcated lip to engage the ties, in which device only the narrow and limited surface of end sections of the lip comes in contact with the tie, which have a cutting action on the latter.

Therefore I do not claim, broadly, in railroad splice-plates the downward bifurcated lip or projection to engage the ties, irrespective of the finished form of these engaging lips and their bifurcations; but

What I do claim as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In railroad splice-plates, the wings E E, in combination with the downward-projecting tie-engaging lips or bifurcations D D, whereby broad contact-surfaces instead of narrow cutting-edges are provided between the spliceplates and ties to prevent the splices from cut-ting into the ties by the longitudinal strain and vibrating of the rails, substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

FRANK e. JOHNSON.

\Vitnesses:

JOSEPH A. FARRELL, CHAS. RUs'roN. 

